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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival
material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are
physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available
through the World Wide Web. See the
section for more information.

Three generations of the Spears and Hicks families of Virginia and North Carolina,
including Sallie Gray Spears Lewis (b. 1833), her daughter Sallie Moore Spears Hicks
(b. 1860), and her grandson Charles Spears Hicks (b. 1886), a North Carolina banker. Primarily personal letters, 1852-1917, detailing the family, social, and financial
affairs of members of the Spears and Hicks and related Gray, Warren, Glasgow, and
Lewis families of Fincastle and Botetourt County, Va.; Malden and Charleston, W.Va.;
Wilmington and Dunn, N.C.; Paris, Tex.; Saline County, Mo.; and other locations. Subjects
include military life and social conditions during the Civil War; farming in various
locations; student life at the Augusta Female Seminary (later Mary Baldwin College)
in Staunton, Va., 1875-1881; conditions among slaves, including an 1861 slave list;
women's lives and business dealings; banking in North Carolina, 1908-1917, including
mention of a Chinese banker in Wilmington; engineering of heating and cooling systems,
1908-1917; experiences of an elderly woman living with her daughter's family; and
social aspects of tuberculosis. There are also many letters from Virginia lawyers
William A. Glasgow and his son Frank T. Glasgow.

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants,
as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Spears and Hicks Family Papers #4622, Southern Historical
Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Karl M. Andrews of Chattanooga, Tenn., in June 1992, in honor of his
parents.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or
confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy
laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. §
132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of
State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.).
Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to
identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent
of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under
common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's
private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable
person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no
responsibility.

The following terms from
Library of Congress Subject
Headings
suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the
entire collection; the terms do
not usually represent
discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or
items.

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Sallie (Sarah?) Gray was born on 28 May 1833, probably in Fincastle Va. Her father,
John Moore Gray, was High Sheriff of Botetourt County in 1848 and also built Prospect
Hill, the family home. Sallie had two brothers and a sister: Oliver P., a farmer and
businessman; Lazarus Moore, a physician and teacher; and Mary.

In 1860, Sallie Gray married Charles C. Spears, also of Virginia. He had three siblings:
Lizzie Spears Glasgow (d. 1862) of Fincastle, Va., wife of lawyer William A. Glasgow
and mother of lawyer Frank T. Glasgow; Becky Spears Warren (d. 1866) of Paris, Tex.,
wife of farmer Rice Warren; and John Spears of Saline County, Mo. In 1861, Charles
and Sallie had a daughter, Sallie Moore Spears, and Charles joined the Confederate
Army. He was killed at the Battle of Leesburg in October 1862.

Sallie Gray Spears married John D. Lewis on 30 November 1874, and they lived on a
farm in Malden, W.Va. He died around 1878 and left Sallie a large estate that was
administered by Charles Lewis of Charleston, W.Va.

Sallie Moore Spears attended school at the Augusta Female Seminary in Staunton, Va.,
from 1875 to 1881. William A. Glasgow seems to have been financially responsible for
her education. In 1885, Sallie Moore Spears married Wilmington, N.C., businessman,
Rufus W. Hicks (b. 1849). They had five children: Charles Spears (b. 27 July 1886);
Atha Royall; Rufus W., Jr.; Lewis Glasgow; and John Moore Gray (b. 28 August 1896).

Both Sallie Lewis and Sallie Hicks were involved with numerous business and real estate
dealings. In the late 1800s, Sallie Lewis sold or rented her late husband's lands
in West Virginia. In 1903, she succeeded in purchasing Prospect Hill, though she continued
to live with her daughter's family in Wilmington. Throughout these dealings, she relied
heavily on the financial and legal advice of her nephew Frank T. Glasgow. In the early
1900s, Sallie Hicks built and managed an apartment building in Wilmington.

Rufus W. Hicks, Jr., graduated from North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic
Arts in Raleigh in 1910. He was an engineer who worked in New York, Wilmington, Charlotte,
and elsewhere, mostly with heating and cooling systems.

Charles Spears Hicks graduated from Davidson College in 1907. He went into banking,
and worked for a while in Wilmington and Whiteville, N.C., before moving to Dunn,
N.C., in 1910, where he married in 1914. From 1910 to 1917, he was cashier at the
First National Bank in Dunn. He appears to have taken full responsibility for the
bank from 1911 to 1916, when the bank president, Preston S. Cooper, became ill with
tuberculosis. In January 1917, Charles Spears Hicks resigned his position because
of his fears of contracting tuberculosis.

These papers were collected by Karl Andrews, who transcribed many of the earlier letters
and researched the family history.

The collection consists mostly of family and business letters written to three people:
Sallie Gray Spears Lewis, Sallie Moore Spears Hicks, and Charles Spears Hicks. Although
letters to mother and daughter are sparse after 1900, their later activities are well
documented in both women's letters to Charles Spears Hicks. Other materials include
letters to other family members, financial and legal materials, postcards, report
cards, and research materials gathered by Karl Andrews. Where possible typed transcriptions
are filed with matching originals; other transcriptions are filed with the research
materials of Karl Andrews.

Mostly letters from family members to Sallie Gray Spears (later Lewis) relating their
experiences before, during, and after the Civil War, especially from her sister-in-law
Becky Warren concerning family life, health, farming, Texas customs, the war, slaves,
and Indians. There are also several witty letters from brother Lazarus Moore Gray
about school in Philadelphia, family affairs, and his observations of life; letters
from brother-in-law John Spears about farming and family; a few letters from brother
Oliver P. Gray; and others from husband Charles Spears from camp at Stonebridge, Va.

Family letters from Sallie's second husband John D. Lewis written while Sallie was
traveling in 1877; letters from daughter Sallie about classmates and her teacher,
Miss Baldwin, and family; letters from Rufus W. Hicks concerning his desire to marry
Sallie Moore Spears; and legal and financial advice from William and Frank Glasgow.

Mostly financial and legal letters from Charles C. Lewis, Frank T. Glasgow and others
concerning the estate and sale of land in West Virginia, and relating to Sallie's
attempts to buy Prospect Hill in Fincastle. There are also several versions of Sallie's
will.

Letters from family and friends, chiefly written to Sallie during her school days
at the Augusta Female Seminary, concerning family affairs, education, finances, and
her courtship with Rufus W. Hicks. One letter from friend Bessie Maitland Doryall,
dated 14 June 1880, was written while Bessie was on her honeymoon in England and Scotland,
and discusses her wedding, and observations on British life and customs, especially
race relations. There are also a few letters from children and friends written after
1886.

Family and business correspondence. Most family letters are from Charles's mother
concerning her attempts to build an apartment building and other family matters; his
grandmother, complaining about her treatment by the family and describing her living
conditions, including her relations with black servants; brother Rufus, about his
work as an engineer; and brother Gray at Davidson College, about football and baseball.

Business correspondence is chiefly from Hicks's time as cashier at the First National
Bank in Dunn, N.C. Several letters from January 1911 discuss attempts to help a Chinese
banker from Wilmington, who visited China and was refused entry upon his return to
the United States. Also of interest are correspondence with bank president Preston
S. Cooper, his wife Lela, and others concerning Cooper's bout with tuberculosis, his
health, personal finances, and the business of running the bank.

Items include photos of Prospect Hill taken in the 1970s; correspondence with various
academic publishers; information about Prospect Hill and Fincastle; and notes and
other papers generated by Andrews as he compiled materials in the collection, including
some typed transcriptions of letters the originals of which are not in the collection.
Also included are microfiche copies of 17 newspaper pages; some, especially those
with obituaries, also have paper copies.